Early iPhone and iPad Prototypes Unearthed

Patent-related tech court battles are usually tedious things, often coming off like multi-million dollar playground scuffles. But some interesting stuff has resulted from the latest spat between Apple and Samsung – a fistful of photos of iPhone and iPad prototypes have been released.

These images were revealed as part of the court proceedings. Let’s take a closer look –

One to file in the “yeh, this would never happen” pile, the “boeing V6” prototype may have been an early design for the iPhone 4. A bit like the one that actually appeared, but with rather horrible angled edges and a very clear, seemingly metal, bezel. Apple dodged a bullet with this one.

Apple trying out “function over form”, here we see an iPad prototype that has a little cut-out you can stick a kickstand into. It’s an interesting idea, but lacks the simple purity of the real thing.Its front isn’t all that pretty either, its angles edges having the look of a photo frame rather than the curved style that’s now the norm among tablets. Here’s what we could have won, folks.

Perhaps the most unusual of all the designs outed, though, is the “n90”. This was reportedly a proposed design for the iPhone 4. It seems to have a much smaller screen than any other iPhone – and appears to be much less wide too. Check out how much of the bottom the dock connector takes up.A more familiar prototype, this metal-bodied design reminds of some HTC phones, such as the minor-classic HTC Legend.

This is likely to be just a tiny fraction of the designs Apple has chewed through over the years. Which is your favourite? And would you pick any of them over the real thing?